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^^THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY; 



AN ORATION 



DELIVERED AT BUFFALO, JULY 4th, 1862, 



BY WALTER CLARKE. D. D. 



BUFFALO: 

PUBLISHEn BY BREED, BUTLER & CO., 188 MAIN STREET, 
1862. 



x(^^^- 




"THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY;^ 



AN ORATIO 



DELIVERED AT BUFFALO, JULY 4th, 1862, 



BY WALTER CLARKE, D. D. 



BUFFALO: 

PUBLISHED BY BREED, BUTLER & CO., 188 MAIN STREET. 
18 62, 






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ir^2_ 



JOSEI'H VVARIIEN & GO'S STEAM PRINTING HOUSE, 



ORATION 



Mr. Mayor, Gentlemen of the Common Council, and Fellow 
Citizens: — 

We celebrate to-day, the Eighty-sixth Anniversary of our National 
Independence. And were the country in a more peaceful and 
pro.sperous state, duty to the past would doubtless require that we 
should make the occasion a festival of memory', rehearsing with 
grateful eulogy and patriotic pride, the deeds by which our fathers 
achieved immortality for themselves, and left to us, as a precious 
and pei'petual legacy, a free State — an open School — and a Church 
— the seminary of virtue, the citadel of truth. 

But the Republic, which came into existence, in that first act of 
independence, has reached at length the period of its second na- 
tivity: and existing events fraught with all imaginable destinies for 
the future, summon lis from the cradle, where Liberty was born, 
to the scene of present agony, where tbe same Liberty is passing 
through the anguish and the fear of a second birth. 

I have thought, therefore, fellow citizens, that I might best ac- 
complish the grateful task to which your good will has called me 
to day, by avoiding all the common places which have made this 
anniversary so fantastic in former times, and setting before you an 
earnest, and so far as T can make it, a thorough exposition of the 
present state of the country. 



6 ORATION. 

What is the meaning of this huge and frightful revolt which has 
driven the States of the South into madness, and treason and war? 

Has our once united and happy country come so soon to its 
death struggle? Is Time the enemy of freedom, and are Republics 
the children of disease, doomed to a brief existence and a violent 
end ? Are the powers of inevitable destruction setting in from the 
South? Or is the mighty life of the North, rushing with a gene- 
rous impetuosity into the distempered members, and flooding the 
whole body of the State with a new vitality? What is the his- 
toric significance, and what the true solution of this great National 
convulsion ? To such inquiries we devote the present hour. 

The American Independence was the birth — fur us — and for all 
the Nations, of true liberty. For centuries the idea had been 
slowly shaping itself, in the minds of martyrs, and patriots, and 
sages, till when it was fully ripe, it broke forth and became one of 
the fixed realities of time. True liberty, I say, for it is essential 
to any just estimate of our"fathers, or any correct understanding 
of the institutions which they founded, to distinguish two very 
diftorent kinds of Popular Freedom. 

All vices, of individuals and nations — all despotisms, single or 
collective — whatever errors men embrace, whatever crimes they 
cultivate, whatever tyrannies they befriend — all these pernicious 
and unhuly things, demand for their accommodation, an unlawful 
license — liberty to exist, liberty to expatiate, liberty to lay waste. 
Here is one kind of freedom — freedom for thino's that are injuri- 
ous, and unlawful, and base This kind of liberty had been long 
in the world — to the grief of nations, to the ruin of governments. 
Our fathers believed that it was time to introduce a new order 
into the course of this world: time to lay restraint on oppression, 
and give liberty to that which benefits and erniobles man. Flying 
therefore to this far-off Continent, which seemed to have been 
waiting through all the centuries for their arrival, they said — "this 



ORATIOy- 7 

shall be the home of (he new liberty; here we will build an em- 
Y>'vG in which all just and beniticent things shall have freedom; 
and all other things hindrance and censure and restraint." 

It should never be forgotten, that the only liberty which the 
founders of this Republic sought for themselves, or won for us, was 
a lawful liberty ; enfranchisement for whatever ennobles au'l bene- 
fits the race. 

And, that they might not be misunderstood in a matter so fun- 
damental, and might not let loose upon this great Continent, under 
the name of liberty, the elements of universal misrule, they care- 
fully determined the limits, and wrote down the boundaries within 
■which American freedom should forever reside. Master-builders 
as they were, they ei'ected around every estate, and privilege, and 
right, and person, the barrier of a well defined constitution ; the 
bulwark of intelligible and authoritative law. 

American Liberty, therefore, is not liberty in any absolute, am- 
biguous or universal sense — is not the liberty which demagogues 
covet, or reprobates conceive, or rebels assert. It is a defined, a 
limited, a legitimate, a constitutional liberty. Having achieved 
this form of freedom and desiring to detain the invisible guest in 
some fit inclosure, our fathers set tip the constitution. And 
that single instrument is the sanctuary and stronghold of Ficedom, 
not for this Continent alone, but for the whole world as well. 
When that goes down, Liberty having no fortress and no shelter 
on earth, will escape to the skies from which she came. 

But the founders of the Republic understood as we do, that it 
was essential to the stability of a free government, nay to its very 
existence indeed, that libeity should be balanced and harmonized 
by another sentiment of equal strength and equal puritj', the 
sentiment, to wit, of Loyalty. No government can exist, no interest 
thrive, no people be safe, where laws are wanting — or being 



8 ORATION. 

had are nut obeyeiL In despotic states, the laws must be executed 
by force, U-cause with them, government rests not upon the con- 
sent of the people, but upon the power of the rulers. In Repub- 
hcs, on the contrary — law derives its foi'ce, not from the power of 
the magistrate, but from the consent of the governed. This vol- 
untary consent then on the part of all the free, this spontaneous, 
cordial, quick allegiance to the law, is absolutely essential, not to 
the stability only, but to the very existence of a free State. Our 
fathers understanding the need and the woilh of this sentiment, 
made the Constitution a chart of American loyalty, as well as a 
measure of American liberty. That instrument uses a precision 
no more exact, and employs a care no more circumspect, when 
defining the rights of the people, than when declaring their 
duties. And this gives us the true and only true conception of the 
loyalty which our country requires of its subjects. Our liberty is 
an American liberty. Our loyalty must be American also. And 
American loyalty holds inviolate and sacred the American law; 
holds as most inviolate and most sacred, that which is the basis of 
all governmiMit and the source of all authority, the Constitution, 
the Law's law. To obey as subjects, to execute as magistrates, 
to defend a> citizens, to yield homage and allegiance to American 
law, whether it be recorded in constitutions, or written in codes, or 
expounded in courts, obedience to A.raerican law, that is American 
loyalty. Whatever is other or less than that, is secession, is 
treason. 

Loyalty and Liberty in the sense of the Constitution, are the 
two pillars on which the Republic stands. Remove either of them 
and you overturn the government. Take away Liberty and the 
laws have nothing to guard, and nothing to perpetuate, and noth- 
ing to do. For that is the one office of American law, to protect 
and preserve, and perpetuate the liberties of the people. Take 
away Loyalty and Freedom has no guardian, and no ho})e, and no 
hjme; for it is only under the shelter of Law that Liberty can 



ORATION. 9 

live. Loyalty and Liberty unite in the American Constitution, as 
the centripetal anl centrifugal forces combine, in the systems of 
the stellary world. Preserve them as they are, and every orb ad- 
heres to its ciicuit, and every satellite keeps its place, and the order 
of the heavens is as enduring as time. Nothing is wanting to the 
instant ruin of the Republic, but to impair one of these two forces; 
to corrupt the spirit of Loyalty on the one hand, or enfeeble the 
sense of Liberty on the other. On the contrary nothing is needed 
to perpetuate the Republic through countless generations and to 
the end of time, but to keep alive in the popular mind, and in 
due proportion, the two great sentiments on which the government 
rests. In astronomy, just so long as the centi-ipetal force is matched 
and balanced by the centrifugal, the worlds will revolve peaceluUy 
and happily, as at the first. And just so long as the American 
people will preserve their liberties on the one side, and their loyal- 
ties on the other, that is to say, just so long as they will be faith- 
ful to that Constitution, which is the covenant of liberty, and the 
charter of law, the Republic will remain secure and happy. It 
may extend to whatever limits; it may embrace whatever terri- 
tory; it may include whatever institutions; it may acquire what- 
ever population; it may encountiu- whatever trials; but just so 
long as the people will guard with becoming vigilance, and pre- 
serve with patriotic care, the two essential factors of the common- 
wealth, — ^just so long as they can retain Liberty and Loyalty, the 
Republic will be safe. When either begins to falter, the Republic 
is in peril. 

Our fathers gave us liberty. They could not give us loyalty 
also. For, while freedom is a social condition, into which we can 
be put by others — allegiance on the other hand is a popular senti- 
ment, which we must unfold for ourselves, and a public habit 
which we must exercise in person. 

The fathers did what they could ; gave us liberty, and defining 
in the charter which conveyed the costly inheritance, the loyalty 



10 ORATION. 

which we must acquire and practice, left us to gain that wanting 
sentiment, by whatever discipline the future should chance to 
furnish. And, until the people should acquire that second lesson, 
and become as loyal as they are free, and as secure as they were 
loyal, those wise and cautious fathers called to the aid of the Re- 
public the tutelar service of religion. Centuries of spiritual cul- 
ture had sunk in the popular mind a deep reverence for God; a 
consciousness of His presence; a sense of His justice; a dread of 
His wrath. Among all ordei's and ranks, an oath was held as 
especially sacred. That was a bond which no man might violate; 
that was a pledge which none might despise. Our fathers, fearing 
for the safety of the new Confederacy, said: " Till loyalty has had 
time to grow, and patriotism to become strong, let us put liberty 
under the care of an oath.'" They did as they devised, laid upon 
the whole Nation a religious vow — bound rulers and ruled by an 
oath, to respect the Constitution, to obey the laws, to practice loy- 
alty in form till allegiance should be theirs in spirit. That oath 
remained the bond of union and the strength of law for more 
than three-fourths of a century. But for that, the Nation would 
have gone asunder long since, as did the Republics of the Old 
World, as have the Republics of more modern times. That oath 
kept even the South from the apostacy she so early intended, and 
so conhtantly and so shamefully desired. And had not the gan- 
grene of Slavery eaten its way into the Southern Church, corrupt- 
ing the ancient religion, and giving to the people a depraved con- 
science, a degraded manhood, a loose Christianity, and an apostate 
pulpit; treason had never had the strength, nor sedition the cour- 
age to break the allegiance, and dissever the oath, and do violence 
alike to the laws of God and the covenants of man. 

Till the people could attain to a loyalty which should equal 
their rights, and be as cheerfully obedient, as they were willingly 
free, our fathers relied upon the force of the cath to make them 
submissive, and orderly, and true. 



ORATION. 11 

ludepeuclonco had been achieved, liberty acquired, and the 
Nation conducted safely through the first stadium of its history. 
It rnust now enter upon a new probation and pass the ordeal of a 
second stage. The fathers had undertaken with their virtues, to 
acquire liberty for themselves and their children. Now the nation 
starting upon a new career, must decide whether with liberty it can 
achieve loyalty also, completing the fabric which the fathers com- 
menced. 

To gain Loyalty, that was the task to which the American Peo- 
ple were sent, eighty-six years ago. Was there anything in the 
traditions, habits or circumstances of the Nation at that time to 
make the experiment perilous or the event doubtful ? Any con- 
cealed enemy to threaten the existence? any unknown obstacle to 
hinder the growth of that much needed sentiment, the soul of the 
Republic, the life of liberty, popular allegiance to law ? 

Alas! we must confess it, there were four deadly elements hid 
in the heart of the Nation, an<l biding their time, with which gov- 
ernment wouhl one day be obliged to contend, in a conflict that 
should bring to our liberties everlasting triumph or utter extinc- 
tion. Three of these malignant foices were great lusts, that had 
been nurtured by indulgence and envenomed by abuse; the 
fourth was a horrid crime consolidated into an unsightly custom, 
and set forth as a social institution. Neither, was the product or 
the pet of the new government. They were within the Republic 
but not of it. The sins of a former age, they had drifted down 
to their descendants, and were present not as partners, but as ene- 
mies; not to build up, but to demolish; not as guests awaiting a 
welcome, but as assassins athirst for blood. These four enemies 
destined to make war on the Republic, and destined to perish in 
the strife which they should provoke, were Party Spirit, Greed of 
Wealth, Southern Despotism, and Negro Slavery. 

It needs no argument I am sure at this late day, to convince 
any candid observer that these four malignant powers are so hos- 



12 ORATION. 

tile to every principle of a Free government, that if they ;)ppear 
single or together, in a Republic, they or the government must one 
day perish. 

Party spirit, what is it but the very opposite of true patriotism 1 
overturning what the fathers gave their lives to erect. Elevating 
the unscrupulous demagogue to the place of the authorized ruler — 
substituting a selfish rabble, scrambling for spoils, for a discarde<l 
Nation asking for government, making office an occasion for 
plunder, and law a tool for interest — discarding justice, despising 
honor, disowning truth — a fierce, multitudinous, many-headed 
tyrant, whose one method is seizure, and its one end success; party 
spirit has only to acquire opportunity and power, and it will 
sacrifice to itself the fairest Republic that the sun ever looked upon. 

The same is to be said of the insane greed for wealth, which 
inflames and maddens the masses. Pursuing its one object, 
regardless of all scruples, and indifferent to all rights — making tho 
elements its menials, and the earth its helpers, this insatiate 
spirit of gain will one day ask, whether the American government 
cannot be converted into a house of merchandise, and Liberty hei- 
self, sold for a price at the shambles. And when that day comes. 
Liberty will be compelled to rescue herself by setting her heel on 
the neck of her enemy. 

Then there is at the South, as we all know, a widely difi'use<l 
spirit of despotism — the creature in part of an idle, wild and cava- 
lier ancestry — in part of the habits of the plantation and the pres- 
ence of the slave; a proud, a supercilious, a barbaric temper — a 
feeling to which Mr. Calhoun gave full utterance and frank ex- 
pression when in 1812 he had the impudence to proclaim, "We 
Southrons are essentially aristocratic, and when we cease to con- i 
trol this Nation we shall then resort to a dissolution of the Union." 
That proud feeling of aristocracy, that conceit of self which 
accepts the Republic only while it can wield the lash, and guide 



ORATION. 13 

the rein, and be an acknowledged despot, can anybody doubt that 
if the lathers give us hberty, liberty will one day have to eojie in 
deadly battle with that e.nciny ? 

And finally, nobody who knows what slavery is, will need to be told 
that if it be tolerated in the new Republic, it will at no very distant 
day rise up, like a spectre of darkness, and attemj)t to avenge 
itself by overturning the government. Our fathers, laying the 
foundations of a free State, had' to do not only with the choice 
material which should enter into the composition of the coming 
Republic, and be part of the enduring and everlasting fabric, but 
with much other base and spurious material as well, which, while 
it was unfit for the intended structure, was on their hands never- 
theless, and must be disposed of in some way. 

One of these incongruous and incompatible things, was the sjs- 
tora of Negro Slavery. It was already on the ground, accepted, 
tenacious, and ineradicable. The founders of the Republic had 
not produced and could not displace it. Here it was. What 
should they do with it? Happily it was altogether a municipal 
evil — the creature of local customs, the subject of State authority. 
Our fathers taking note of this circumstance said: "Let it remain 
altogether with those who have the lawful charge of it. The 
American Government shall not go down to slavery to deal with 
ii; slavery shall not come up to the American Government to 
have partnership with it. As respects the States, it may be, if they 
so elect, domesticated and at home with them. As respects the 
Repuljlic, it shall be fore\er an alien and a stranger. Since the 
American Government is for free men and not for slaves, for lib- 
erty and not for oppression, it will leave Slavery to the care of 
those who choose to care for it — neither invading it on the one hand, 
nor protecting it on the other." 

That was the way in which our fathers disposed of the question 
of slavery. The Republic they said, shall tolerate the evil till it 



14 ORATION. 

has time to take itself away: but it shall be endurance not adop- 
tion; hospitalitv, njt partnership; concession not concurrence. 

But how inevitable that such a system should refuse to submit 
to these restrictions. Eating up the fruits of the soil like locusts, 
like locusts, the enslaved and hungry horde must move often to 
new places and alight upon fresh herbage. Consuming the face of 
the earth like fire, like fire, the system of slavery must spread, or 
die of that it feeds upon, devouring and being devoured. 

Slavery, we might be sure of it, would utterly reject the res- 
traints of the Constitution, and come forward to claim, not tolera- 
tion, as an alien, but acceptance as a partner; not the mere per- 
mission to die unmolested, but the full freedom of the Republic; 
liberty to expand, liberty to endure, liberty to ascend to seats of 
power and reign. 

Such was the character of the enemies with which the American 
Republic would be compelled to contend so soon as she started 
upon her course in history. 

How actual and how serious has been the struggle which has 
occurred in fact; how these eighty-six years, and especially the 
latter portion of them, have been years of ceaseless conflict between 
the liberties of the loyal, and the loyalties of the free, on the one 
hand, and all the forces of party spirit, and greed, and despotism, 
and slavery, on the other — all this is too well known to need re- 
hearsal now. Enough to say, that after many years of growth, 
and violence, and rude aggression, each one of these malignant 
forces has at last reached its head: party spirit in the conflicts and 
ruptures of the Charleston Convention — avarice and greed in the 
huge and unscrupulous plunder of the last administration — despo- 
tism in the act of secession — and slavery in the setting up of the 
Southern Confederacy. Four cancers coming to the surface to 
declare the latent disease, four craters spouting forth their hidden 
fires, the ruptures at Charleston, the thefts of the traitors, the 



ORATION. 15 

Soutliren secession, and the new Confederacy, are so many signs, 
telling us that American history has reached at length her second 
crisis, and her great battle. It has taken us eighty-six years to 
bring out, into their full strength, and array in their proper malig- 
nity, these once concealed and peaceful elements of ruin. 

But let us observe the changes which this great and healthful 
ciisis has produced in the South, on the one hand; and in the 
North, on the other. We shall see that the States which have 
stood by the government, and those which have revolted, have both 
gained and lost much: but gained and lost in exactly opposite 
ways. The South once had the republic, the constitution, liberty, 
loyalty, and the oath. All these, the very elements and principles 
of a free State, they have cast away and abandoned, The North, 
on the other hand, had, till of late, its full share of party spirit, and 
avarice, and cowardly concession to slavery. But how, like hurry- 
ing mists, have all these shameful sentiments been swept away from 
the face of these loyal States, by the events and the responsibilities 
of the present hour 

Despotism we never had. The Southren chivalry monopolised 
and kept that feeling. The other three we have shared with them 
till recently, these too, have left us; and greed, and theft, and 
party sj^irit, and slavery, and despotism, and treason, and falsehood 
have banded together into an empire by themselves, to worship 
their idol, and devour their plunder, and wait till, from the 
heavens above or the pit below, judgment and doom arrive together. 
The revolted States have cast away all the elements, emblems and 
safe-guards of liberty ; have renounced allegiance, rejected authority, 
refused the constitution, disowned the oath, disobeyed the laws, 
made freedom an exile, made patriotism a crime. The Noilh, on 
its part, letting go all the old passions which made war upon free- 
dom, has welcomed, with an enthusiasm which knows no bounds, 
and an unanimity which has no exception, the spirit of patriotism 



16 ORATION. 

for that of party, of self-sacrifice for that of greed, of freedom for 
compromise and connivance and pro-siavery. Aod from this day 
the conflict upon this Continent is not territorial only, but moral as 
well. It is not commonwealths alone, that contend in this great 
battle of Freedom — not commonwealths, nor races, nor armies. 
Ideas are at war now. The providence of God has sifted the 
Nation, and drawn to one field all the passions, instincts and vices, 
that are at war with liberty ; and to the other, all the powers, ideas 
and virtues, that foster a fi'ee government. And these opposing 
elements are now to determine, for all countries, for all time, which 
shall triumph, and which submit. 

Whoever understands the American constitution, will perceive 
that there are but two ways in which the government can be mal- 
admiuistered to the injury of the people; and consequently, but two 
kinds of grievance of which a citizen or a State may lawfully com- 
plain. The government may so administer law as to oppress lib- 
erty, or so indulge liberty as to imperil law. In the former case, 
the aggrieved people, acting in the interest of invaded liberty, would 
complain of the unconstitutional and injurious aggression of the law. 
In the other, taking part with the imperiled law, they would indit-e 
and accuse the overreaching liberty. Had the seceding States raised 
either of these two issues; had they so said, the American govern- 
ment is invading our liberties, by enacting unconstitutional laws, or 
is outraging the laws by an unconstitutional use of liberty ; that, 
though unfounded, would have been a legitimate charge. For that 
would have been taking part with American loyalty against an 
ofiending liberty, or with American liberty against unjust and in- 
trusive law. But these infuriate and unthinkiag States took part 
neither with liberty on the one hand, nor with loyalty on the other; 
but renouncing both, committed a double ti-eason. The North, on 
the other hand, taking part with the rejected constitution, and that 
with the intent to restore not loyalty alone, but liberty as well, has 



ORATION. 17 

declared her allegiance to both the principles of the Republic, and 
become as doubly loyal as the South is doubly the opposite. 

And what may we suppose will be the issue of this great con- 
flict ? The South have taken up arms, to repel, the North to restore 
the two vital forces of the government — loyalty and liberty. 

What will come of a contest in which one of the combatants 
has undertaken to destroy, and the other to defend the most just 
and beneficent Government the world has ever seen ? If this is a 
world in which right is entitled to overmaster the wrong; if we 
have reached an age in which Liberty has higher claims and surer 
prospects than oppression — above all, if there be in the heavens a 
just God, the Judge of nations and the Arbiter of war, may we 
not confidently say, that to the North, this controversy can bring- 
nothing but growing advancement and ultimate victory ; to the 
South, nothing but repeated disaster and final defeat. Every step 
in the great conflict, from the beginning till now, has been to the 
loyal States, a manifest ascent towards honor, and virtue, and 
strength ; to the absconded States a visible decline towards weak- 
ness and anarchy and shame. Nothing could have wrought such 
benefit to us — nothing such injury to them, as their withdrawal. 
Had they desired to ruin us, they would have remained. Had 
they intended to destroy themselves, they would have done as 
they did. True, their revolt has brought upon us a lengthened, 
expensive and uncertain war. But war, though it impoverish our 
coffers and decimate our legions and continue for years, war is 
better for us than indifference, and venality, and National decay. 
We were losing our manhood before; we are recovering it now. 
Every battle, every sacrifice, every sorrow of the present time, 
makes us a nobler and a better people. Whether we conquer the 
rebels or not, we are conquering our own corruptions; and that is 
a victory worth all that it costs. If it were possible to imagine, 
what nobody has the credulity to anticipate, or the cowardice to 



18 ORATION. 

fear, that we shall not soon subjugate the rebel spirit and recover 
the alien territory, and reconstruct the ruptured Union, even then 
we should say, The safety of unnumbered millions of free and hon- 
est men, in coming ages, requires that for the present the South 
shall stand apart, as a vast receptacle into which the vices of a 
great continent, its treason, its idleness, its pride, into which slavery 
and lawlessness, and lust, and anarchy, and despotism, shall 
together flow; where these destructive passions shall congregate 
as in a common pool, and seethe as in a common cauldron, till the 
unholy things, preying upon each other, shall be consumed at 
length, and the whole continent delivered from their presence. 
There is something portentous and awful in the recent migration 
of all the elements of National dissolution ; of treason, of pro- 
slavery, of party spirit, of greed, from the North to the South. 
When such ill omened birds begin to move towards any spot, it 
augurs that the feast of death is about to be celebrated. The 
simultaneous flight of all the elements of freedom, towards the 
North, on the other hand — the eager escape of patriotism and 
allegiance and faith, seems to portend that the South is to be no 
longer a shelter for freedom or a home for virtue. It may be 
that till the present generation has been disabled, we shall not 
reclaim the revolted States, or restore the ancient Union. When 
the humors that had well nigh destroyed the body, withdraw and 
concentrate in some single member, amputation of the diseased 
limb may be the only remedy. 

But if that should happen, which we trust will not happen, if 
through impotence or disinclination, or the better purpose of a 
superintending Providence, we should fail to regain the rebel States 
till a distant day, what then ? Why, we have only failed in an at- 
tempt to conquer for the traitors the freedom which they had 
madly cast aside. We are fighting with the South not to rob 
them of what they received of the fathers; not to taKe away their 
liberties, but to restore them. If we succeed, we give them back 



ORATION. 19 

the inheritance for which their fathers fought. If we fail, they 
and not we must suffer the consequences of so great a disaster. 
We have not cast away our liberties; nor have we to regain loyal- 
ty, or union, or freedom. Never were the people of the North 
so loyal, so united, so brave, so strong, so worthy of freedom, so 
certain of freedom, as since they began to pour out their treasure 
and sacrifice their lives in the defence of the government. And 
whether we recover the revolted States or lose them, one thing is 
now certain — certain as it never was before — there is patriotism 
enough in the loyal North to save the Republic from its enemies 
at home — from its enemies abroad. Liberty has been attended 
along the ages with a train of martyrs. Liberty has her martyrs 
now, and with her martyrs Liberty is ever safe. We shall never 
again lack loyalty; never again think lightly of freedom. While 
the 8outh was with us, we caught her vices, and were becoming a 
dastardly unprincipled and imbecile crew, cowenug at every threat 
of the chivalry, bowing our necks to despotism, doing homage to 
slavery, sacrificing honor and manhood, and Liberty itself, to some 
new compromise, or some shameful concession, or some promise of 
a partneiship in treason, and a share in the plunder. Whatever 
comes of this enormous war, we are emancipated already from 
that horrid incubus that lay on our hearts before. Never again 
will we yield our rights to despots. Never again will we allow 
slavery to take control of the government. We are free men now, 
and intend to remain so. 

What could the people of the South do, if they should be so un- 
fortunate as to succeed for a time in their foolish purpose of se- 
cession ? Set uj) a free government ? They have had a free gov- 
ernment and overturned it. Adopt a written constitution ? They 
have had a written constitution, and cast it aside. Bind them- 
selves by an oath ? They have disavowed an oath and brought 
perjury on their souls already. Would they teach their children 
allegiance ? They have instructed them even now in the arts of 



20 ORATION. 

rebellion. Would they inculcate fidelity among their slaves? 
Their slaves have seen in their example a lesson of treason and an 
argument for revolt. There is not a solitary element of freedom, 
nor a single principle of government remaining among them, ex- 
cept it be the will of tyrants and the force of arms. For the 
present, passion, and rage, and necessity hold them together. But 
so soon as they are weakened by defeat, or weary of war; so soon 
as want or discouragement or reason returns, no mind can conceive 
the horrors that are reserved for those revolted commonwealths, if 
their own frenzy or the judgment of God should permit them to 
launch upon a separate history, and encounter an avengmg fate. 

For their sake, for the sake of the Republic, for the sake of 
universal humanity, we confidently believe that the revolted States 
will never achieve a separate existence. The contest may be fierce, 
the sacrifice immense, the end afar. The North may be called to 
pour out her treasures like water, and give her sons by thousands 
to the slaughter. But, we are setting up and consolidating a gov- 
ernment which is to last when we and our children are dead. If 
we succeed, unborn millions will bless — if we come short, all the 
uncounted ages of the future will execrate our memory. If we con- 
secrate our persons, if we spend our estates, if we sacrifice our 
children, if we shed our blood in behalf of the sacred cause of Lib- 
erty, let us remember, in the midst of all our trials, that they live 
best who live for the best things, and they die best who die for the 
right. 



§4 W 3 



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March Aofii 1989 







